The festival provides “an especially welcoming environment for musicians; the Sundance Institute launched its composers lab in 1998 and made a commitment to nurturing the relationship between music and film,” notes Variety in an interesting article examining the increasing number of music promoters and performers who come to Sundance in search of a well-connected audience and high-end buzz, though they may not be directly (or even indirectly) connected to films or the festival. This “shadow economy” of the festival circuit, as one independent event producer has termed it, has led some to wonder whether Sundance’s musical “welcome mat has been stretched too wide.”